P-80 secrets revealed looking inside the World's largest plane
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Title (Dublin Core)
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P-80 secrets revealed looking inside the World's largest plane
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Article Title and/or Image Caption (Dublin Core)
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Title: P-80 secrets revealed looking inside the World's largest plane
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extracted text (Extract Text)
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A CLEARER picture of the fastest plane
in the world, the Lockheed P-80 Shoot-
ing Star, is given by photographs just re-
leased for publication and performance de-
tails now made available for the first time.
It can now be revealed that this jet fighter
has a ceiling well above 45,000 feet. Arma-
ment is six 50 caliber machine guns in the
nose. The pilot is protected by a bullet-
resisting glass windshield and by armor
plate fore and aft of his seat. Air pressure
in the cockpit is automatically reduced in
combat to prevent explosive decompression
if a bullet hits the canopy.
Gross take-off weight of the P-80 is about
14,000 pounds, some two tons less than that
of the P-38 Lightning. The kerosene-burn-
ing General Electric jet engine, which has
only one moving part and requires no warm-
up period, can be completely changed in
less than 20 minutes. There is only one
engine control: the throttle.
Because it has no propeller to clear the
ground, the Shooting Star is able to use
extremely low tricycle landing gear. A
“plano finish” is given the whole outside
surface of the plane by the use of a special
primer with baking, waxing, and rubbing.
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Contributor (Dublin Core)
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Eric Sloane (Illustrator)
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Language (Dublin Core)
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Eng
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Date Issued (Dublin Core)
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1945-09
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pages (Bibliographic Ontology)
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93-95
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Rights (Dublin Core)
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Public domain
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Archived by (Dublin Core)
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Sami Akbiyik
Popular Science Monthly, v. 147, n. 3, 1945
